StartUp Your Life

Course description

Taking control of your life and cultivating happiness now (not decades from now, after multiple big milestones) is challenging, no matter how smart or savvy you are. And it takes more than meditation and positive thinking to make it happen. It takes an entirely different way of approaching your life, decisions, and relationships.

Dr. Anna Akbari draws on startup methodology and uses those core principles to help you reframe your life. By creating small incremental goals, measuring and analyzing their results, and holding yourself accountable, Anna shows you how to achieve real measurable results that will boost your success and overall happiness.

In the Startup Your Life video course, Anna is going to work with you to live your life like a startup — regardless of your age, occupation, or current position in life — and start thriving today. I did it, and now I want to show you how.

Living your life like a startup is about maximizing flexibility and measuring on-going results, not avoiding failure or reaching one particular end goal. It’s about embracing defeat, analyzing it, and failing up. Using the Startup Your Life approach, you actively create the life you want, regardless of the stage you’re in or the hurdles you face. It’s not about “happiness someday,” but now.

What Am I Going to Get From This Course?

In-depth exercises that serve as tools to guide everything from your financial success to your love life to your overall happiness and wellbeing.

Realistic and actionable strategies that allow you to live and implement the lessons presented in the course.

Tactics for testing ideas and actions that will allow you to operate with greater confidence and efficacy in your daily life.

Part 1, “The Imperfect Prototype: Become an MVP”: You’ll learn how to reframe your life as a work in progress rather than a final product. Anna will impart valuable tactics for testing ideas and actions that allow you to operate with greater confidence and efficacy

Part 2, “Get Your Mind Right: Optimize Your Mental State”: Retrain your brain and ensure that your thought processes are working for you, and not against you.

Part 3, “Out-Smart Dumb Luck: Experiment-Driven Decision Making”: Through thoughtful experimentation, you’ll learn how to approach your life like a science experiment and the benefits of this methodology.

Part 4, “Everything I Need to Know I Unlearned: Disrupt Your Assumptions”: In this section, you begin the process of unlearning, leaving behind conventional wisdom and learning a new and improved way to view the world around you.

Part 5, “Win Every Room: Establish Product-Market Fit”: This section will help you to understand what matters to you and what resonates with your audience – in all facets of life.

In Part 6, “Work It: The Runway of Your Life”: No matter what you are trying to achieve in life, the way you deliver your goods matters. Anna will teach you how to hack your image and make the world pay attention by maximizing your power potential.

Part 8, “Hustle and Grow: Bootstrap Your Way to Happiness”: In this section you will learn how to dissect your relationship with money and how to live lean through fiscal maximization.

Part 9, “The Partnership Puzzle: Be Your Own Matchmaker”: This section will help you cultivate your soft skills and confidently make partnership choices. Once you are able to do this, you can harness the power of partnerships to promote happiness and success in all areas of your life.

Part 10, “Bellyflop with Grace: The Art of Failure”: In this section, you’ll learn why giving yourself permission to fail can be beneficial to your overall success. Learn how to transform those failures into opportunities for growth.

Part 11, “Peace Out and Level Up: Make Your Exit”: Letting go can be difficult, but in this lesson, you’ll learn how and when to move on. Take charge of your relationship with change and rewire your brain to live a life in transition, and never be scared of change again.

Part 12, “Hitting Refresh: The Life Pivot”: Flip the mental switch that gives you a fresh start! You'll learn how to keep life interesting, prioritize play and seize “good enough.” Anna will teach you everything you need to know about reinventing your life today!

Who Is the Target Audience?

Individuals looking to increase their overall happiness.

Those seeking to improve in all areas of life, from their careers to their personal life.

Entrepreneurs and individuals looking to grow their business or advance their career.

Included in your purchase...

Key takeaways are given with each lessons as gentle reminders to keep you on track long after you have finished the course.

“You can be the startup CEO of your own life, and Anna Akbari teaches you how in this indispensable guide. Her personal tales and time-tested advice inspire and motivate -- it’s the extra push you need for living your best life.” -- Alexa von Tobel, founder and CEO of LearnVest and New York Times bestselling author of Financially Fearless

"Anna Akbari gets right down to business to help you hack your life using the same strategies I used to create products as a CTO in Silicon Valley. It’s the opposite of personal development platitudes, and it works because you can measure it. These are real tools you can use to biohack your performance." —Dave Asprey, New York Times Bestselling Author, The Bulletproof Diet

"As a client of Anna’s, I am ecstatic that her brilliant strategies for happiness are written down for all to share, and most of all, for me to reference and carry with me everywhere! Anna has created a fascinating guide, applying the paradigm shifting, tried and true organizing principles of Silicon Valley Start-Ups to well-being. As one of the lucky few who has had the chance to work with Anna one-on-one, I can say with total sincerity that her insights will guide you through the ebb and flow of life’s failures and successes, time and time again." — Bryce Dallas Howard, Actress

"Finally, a book that shows how to make that Silicon Valley magic work – outside of work. Anna Akbari is the perfect guide through our sometimes dizzying present, where the paths to health, wealth, and happiness no longer run straight, and improvisation and iteration rule the day." — Fran Hauser, Angel Investor and Former President, Digital at Time Inc.

"If you're looking for a reset -- professional or personal -- Anna Akbari is the guru for you. Embracing the revise-as-you-go ethos of the tech world, she'll help you find the right fit, even if it means a misfire or two first. Even better, you'll enjoy the ride." -- Amanda Steinberg, founder of DailyWorth

“For those who want more than fluff, this no-nonsense approach to happiness enlightens as much as it entertains. Startup Your Life is a craftily delivered kick in the pants many people need to make real, sustainable change in their lives." — Mandy Stadtmiller, columnist, New York Magazine

“Living your life like a startup — what a refreshing approach to upgrading how you live, love, and work. An entrepreneurial mindset is such an asset; it’s great to finally see a fun, practical guide that applies this way of operating to everyone." — John Lee Dumas, founder and host of Entrepreneur On Fire

"In a world that seems to demand constant reinvention, it can be hard to keep up. Luckily, Startup Your Life reminds us that everyone is a work in progress -- and that there are many paths to a great finished product." — Soraya Darabi, co-founder of Zady

Dr. Anna Akbari

Sociologist, entrepreneur, innovation consultant, and writer.

Dr. Anna Akbari is a sociologist, entrepreneur, innovation consultant, and writer. She is a former professor in the department of Media, Culture, and Communication and the department of Art and Art Professions at New York University, as well as the Art and Design History and Theory department at Parsons The New School for Design. Her research focuses on visual and virtual self-presentation, technology and human intersects, dating and interpersonal relationships, and happiness and well-being.

Akbari is the founder of Sociology of Style, which takes an intelligent approach to image and well-being and offers holistic image consulting and life coaching services. She also created the Sociology of TV, which offers videos and white papers on the social significance of television media in public spaces.

A prominent thought leader, she is a frequent guest and writer for such outlets as TED, CNN, The Atlantic, DailyWorth, The Bulletproof Executive, Huffington Post, and the Financial Times, as well as a keynote speaker and lecturer at universities, professional conferences, and corporate events.